How Tour Operators can use Digital Communications to Improve Customer Experience

The importance of engaging with your customers at every interaction cannot be overstated.

At each touchpoint along the customer journey, from awareness all the way to post-tour follow up, tour and activity operators have an opportunity to build a positive and lasting impression. The tourism activity industry is unique in that many of the experiences you are providing your guests will be one-off ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences; however, these memories can live on forever and their experiences shared with friends, family and through social media.

In the tour and activity industry, providing an unforgettable experience should always be the main focus, however tour operators should not lose the opportunity to communicate throughout the customer journey. The following Infographic outlines the key touchpoint opportunities along the customer journey:

Zaui Software provides a host of tools to make providing your customers with an exceptional experience a whole lot easier.

These can be broken down into three areas:

1. Enhanced Automated Emails

From the moment a customer provides their email address, by booking a tour, or making an inquiry until after their tour is over, you have an opportunity to communicate with them. A huge benefit of online forms of communication is their ability to be automated.

Each email touchpoint can have its own objective, for example:

Confirmation/Itinerary email(s)– verify that the booking was successful; provide important tour information and cancellation policies; generate excitement; reduce no-shows; a first opportunity to cross sell or promote other tours; encourage social sharing.

Cancellation or modification notifications – Automatically send notifications when a reservation is modified or cancelled.

Inventory status notifications – Get notified when any tour, activity or product is close to capacity.

Reminder email(s)– generate excitement about impending tour; reduce no-shows or people showing up at the wrong date or time; thank customers for booking or mention you’re looking forward to having them join your tour; reminder of what to bring or expect; include a map or directions, link to waiver

Follow up email(s) – best sent when the experience is still fresh in your customer’s mind. Encourage social sharing; invite customers to provide feedback via TripAdvisor, or by completing a quick survey, using an incentive to encourage higher response rate; run a refer-a-friend promotion.

Use the built-in scheduler to set when your customers receive your reminder and follow-up emails.

2. SMS Notifications

The mobile phone is the #1 item brought on holiday. However, a lot of the time your customers will not have access to the internet via their phone, or they may be out and about. An SMS message sent directly to their phone may be the best form of communication. These can be sent in place of, or in addition to your email communications.

Examples include: Sending a quick a reminder the day of, or just before your tour starts, cancellation notifications or notification of pick up or delay for transportation or shuttle operators.

A webhook is a way for an app (such as Zaui) to provide other applications with information. A webhook delivers (pushes) data to other applications as it happens, meaning you get data in real-time. To learn more about webhooks, check out the Wikipedia article.

The possibilities are endless when using webhooks. Here are just a few ways tour and activity operators can use them:

When you receive a new reservation => send customer data to your CRM system